LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake Co-op, Lake County’s online food cooperative, recently expanded its sales to include restaurants, grocery stores and institutions.

The first wholesale deliveries began this past summer while local producers were at their peak of production. There are now several wholesale clients purchasing local produce through Lake Co-op.
 
Hardester’s markets in Middletown, Hidden Valley Lake and Cobb Mountain; St. Helena Hospital- Clearlake; Park Place restaurant and Nutriblends Juice Bar and Smoothie Shop in Lakeport; and Yuba Community College’s culinary program are a few of the programs and businesses now purchasing through the co-op.

The co-op encourages their customers to acknowledge the commitment by these organizations to purchase local.
 
“We not only bring local food home to families,” said Co-op Chair Janine Smith-Citron, “we now help our local businesses and institutions do the same.”

She encourages customers of local restaurants and food stores to ask for locally produced goods, as it helps our local farmers and economy. “We are fortunate enough to live in an agricultural region that can provide a portion of the food we consume daily in Lake County.”
 
Lake Co-op operates through an online ordering and distribution system that serves Lake County residents on a weekly basis.

From Sunday through Tuesday of each week, customers can place and pay for their orders online through www.lake.coop .

If customers don’t have Internet access, the co-op can help customers place orders over the phone.
 
Customers can choose from a variety of local, regional and international organic products. They can also purchase the Co-op’s signature CSA box that includes a variety of seasonal organic fruits and vegetables from the region.
 
“We source local first, regional second and from an organic distributor third,” said Co-op Operations Manager JoAnn Saccato. “Because local food has become important to so many people, our distributor shows us the distance of the farms from San Francisco. As well, we can choose fair trade and smaller farmers that are part of a Farm-to-Fork program.”
 
Customers can also place a subscription order of items to receive each week. For instance, they can choose to get the CSA box and a loaf of their favorite Main Street Bakery bread with only having to place the order once. Subscriptions are available on most items available through the Co-op.
 
On Thursdays of each week, the orders are distributed to one of 12 drop points throughout Lake County or delivered directly to home or businesses for $5. Lakeport, Upper Lake, Nice, Lucerne, Clearlake Oaks, Clearlake, Lower Lake, Hidden Valley, Middletown, Cobb and Clearlake Riviera each have drop points at local businesses.

“It’s a real community effort,” said Smith-Citron. “We do our best to support other Lake County businesses.”
 
For more information on retail or wholesale ordering through the Co-op, visit www.lake.coop , call 707-513-5226 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – University of California Master Gardeners of Lake County will present a rose pruning workshop on Wednesday, Jan. 23.

The workshop will begin at 10 a.m. at Austin Park, 14077 Lakeshore Drive, Clearlake, weather permitting. If it is raining heavily the workshop will be canceled.

Master Gardener Jim Harrell will discuss and demonstrate pruning and other cultural practices that help produce large, healthy rose displays.

Although not a planned portion of the workshop, participants should bring heavy gloves and pruning shears in case hands-on practice is available.

A $5 donation is encouraged to help defray expenses for handouts that will be available. The meeting site is wheelchair accessible.

Please RSVP for this workshop by calling 707-263-6838.

Master gardeners are a group of selected, trained residents who work as volunteer staff for the U.C. Cooperative Extension.

Master gardeners provide accurate horticultural information on vegetable gardening, trees, soils, lawns, ornamental horticulture, insects, diseases, use of pesticides, and other related topics based on research of the University of California and other recognized research institutions.

Information about the rose pruning workshop can be obtained by calling UC Cooperative Extension at 707-263-6838, or on the Web at http://celake.ucdavis.edu .

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Soroptimist International of Clear Lake will hold an evening dinner and membership information meeting at Hidden Valley Lake's Greenview Restaurant on Thursday, Jan. 24.

Social hour begins at 5:30 p.m. and a delicious dinner topped off with key lime tart will be served at 6 p.m.

The speaker will be Ginny Craven, who heads the Operation Tango Mike organization in Kelseyville. She founded the group several years ago and has been honored for the great work she does on behalf of military men and women.

Craven will update the group on the successful holiday drive that provided gifts for deployed troops in countries where they are serving.

There also will be a short presentation by Membership Director Pollyann Johnston and President Wanda Harris on the ideals and goals of Soroptimist International of Clear Lake.

The group will get an update on the annual Spring Fling fundraiser scheduled for Saturday, March 2.

Guest speaker for the Spring Fling is Christine Pelosi, attorney, author and activist, who has a lifetime of grassroots organizing and public policy experience. She will speak on a topic that is one of the key concerns of Soroptimist International clubs thorough out the world – “Human trafficking: How it affects women and girls.”

Soroptimist is a term that means “best for women” and the objective of the group is to promote the advancement of women through volunteer service to the community and to serve as a global voice on issues of importance to women.

Soroptimist International of Clear Lake is part of Soroptimist International of the Americas, a worldwide organization that helps improve the lives of women and girls around the world and is open to all women.

For more information on the dinner, Spring Fling or about membership in the group contact group President Wanda Harris at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 707-225-5800.

LAKEPORT, Calif. –  The Lake County First 5 Commission will hold a regular meeting at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 23.

The commission will meet in the conference room at Lake Family Resource Center, 890 Lakeport Blvd.

Agenda items include the election of 2013 officers, commission committee updates, kindergarten entry date profile presentation, a profile of the Nurturing Parenting Program, commissioners’ reports, executive director’s report, public comment and announcements, and a closed session for the executive director’s performance review.

For more information contact First 5 Lake County, telephone 707-263-6169 or online at www.firstfivelake.org .

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – On Thursday, Jan. 17, the Redbud Audubon Society will host local nature photographer Lyle Madeson who will be speaking and showing slides of birds and animals of Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

The program will be presented at the Lower Lake Schoolhouse Museum on Morgan Valley Road in Lower Lake starting at 7 p.m. The public is invited.

Lyle Madeson and his wife, Deanna, took a 24-day, fly-in trip to Kruger National Park, South Africa last summer.

They also visited many other fascinating locations, including Victoria Falls, one of the seven wonders of the natural world.

Lyle Madeson will share his and Deanna’s photos of sunbirds, lovebirds, numerous African eagles, superb starlings, hornbills, and a stork rookery, to name a few, relates Redbud Audubon president, Marilyn Waits.

He also will show many mammals of Southern Africa including baboons with their infants, and lions and leopards with their prey.

Be sure not to miss this interesting program with beautiful images by two of Lake County’s finest photographers.

For information about the Redbud Audubon Society, go to www.redbudaudubon.org .

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Time banking is a refreshing way for businesses and individuals to share the resource of time, and it’s coming to Lakeport at the Lakeworks Community Space, 307 N. Main St., in February.

Time banking allows businesses and individuals to literally bank hours for future needs and has been well proven in other communities as a legitimate, tax-free and community-building experience.

How does time banking work? For example, let’s say an individual currently has an hour a day to walk dogs. This hour for each day of dog walking can be banked in the time bank for a future service, let's say, to have their back yard cleared up in the spring.

Best of all, this process is 100 percent legitimate and completely tax-free. Time banking can also be used by businesses in the same manner.

Thrive Lake County and the Time Bank of Lake County (a project of Thrive Lake County) will be holding a grand opening on Tuesday, Feb. 26, from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. where the process can be explained.

Furthermore, there will be live music, food and local wines as well with the official ribbon cutting happening at 6 p.m.

There will be an ongoing interactive game where participants can win hours in the time bank to use as they see fit. This is the ideal opportunity to find out how Lake County residents, businesses, and community organizations can build community together and gain access to needed resources through time banking.

“One of our time bank members told me about a dump run she needed,” explains Carol Cole-Lewis, coordinator of Thrive Lake County. “She was able to locate someone who would do this for her on the Time Bank. The time bankers who were moving the trash was not put out, because the dump was in the same direction they were going to meet with an accountant they had found on the time bank. And, while these dump haulers were at this accountant, they did a bit of weeding for the accountant – the weed pulling was done simply as a gesture of kindness and helpfulness as no weed-pulling hours were exchanged. Everybody wins!”

Experience a proven way for businesses to save money build community through the alternative currency of time banking – a huge success story in other communities.

For more information, visit the Thrive Lake County Web site at http://thrivelakecounty.org or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .